Product Owner

Role: Product Owner


Location: Reston, VA (Hybrid)


Duration: Long term


Job Description


Role Summary


We are seeking a Product Owner to drive product delivery by translating business objectives into clearly prioritized development work. This role will serve as the primary interface between business stakeholders and development teams , ensuring delivery of high-value outcomes aligned with organizational goals.


Key Responsibilities


1. Product Vision & Strategy Alignment

• Define and communicate a clear product vision and roadmap
• Ensure alignment with business priorities, customer needs, and strategic objectives

2. Backlog Ownership & Prioritization

• Own and manage the product backlog
• Prioritize features, enhancements, and defect fixes based on business value, risk, and ROI
• Continuously refine backlog items to reflect evolving priorities

3. Requirements Definition

• Translate business needs into user stories with clear acceptance criteria
• Provide ongoing clarification to development teams to ensure accurate implementation

4. Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as the single point of contact for business stakeholders
• Gather and incorporate feedback to maintain alignment and transparency
• Manage competing priorities across stakeholders effectively

5. Sprint Planning & Execution Support

• Participate in Sprint Planning, Reviews, and Demos
• Ensure the team is working on highest-value deliverables each sprint
• Validate deliverables against business expectations

6. Customer & Business Representation

• Serve as the voice of the customer and business
• Ensure delivered features meet user needs and expected outcomes

7. Decision-Making Authority

• Make timely decisions on scope, priorities, and trade-offs
• Balance business value, technical constraints, and timelines

8. Value Delivery & Continuous Improvement

• Focus on maximizing product value and ROI
• Incorporate feedback from stakeholders, users, and retrospectives to refine priorities

Expected Outcomes

• Clearly prioritized and well-maintained backlog
• Improved alignment between business, technology, and delivery teams
• Faster decision-making and reduced delivery ambiguity
• Consistent delivery of high-value product increments

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Strong understanding of Agile/Scrum methodologies
• Experience in stakeholder management and cross-functional coordination
• Ability to translate complex business requirements into actionable deliverables
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills
• Knowledge of FannieMae operations especially as relates to MultiFamily and its data is key
• Ability to manage multiple scrum teams and setting priorities

Responsible for the performance projects or a definable portion of a larger program in accordance with contract requirements and company policies, procedures and guidelines. Directs and supervises all support resources for the performance of project assignments and activities.


Manages project through the design, implementation and testing phases in accordance with project objectives.


The candidate is required to use FNM's program management tools to manage project work plans, issues, risks, and dependencies.


The candidate produces status reports, conducts status meetings and facilitates issue resolution and risk management sessions.


Skills:


1) Excellent planning skills using industry planning applications (i.e. Microsoft Project)


2) Attention to detail


3) Proficiency with project lifecycle cost analysis


4) Strong communication, negotiation and relationship building skills


5) Ability to resolve technical issues


6) Ability to manage, coordinate and guide a project team


7) Strong issue resolution and risk management skills


8) Experience with project management methodologies


Education/Work Experience:


1) Bachelor degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business or Business-related field


2) PMI/Project Management Professional (PMP) certification desired


3) Considered to have strong skills and expertise in the project management field


1) 4-6 Years of progressive IT experience and 2-3 years of PM experience


2) Demonstrated ability in managing projects similar in scope and complexity to the project requirements; shows a track record of completing projects on time.